every u.s. citizen paid $10 to of assam, that would be $3 billion in revenue. -- to uncle sam, that would be $3 billion in revenue. guest: we need to think broadly about the revenue issue, and again about the deficit issue. revenues will be part of the solution ultimately. we have to keep in mind that the large quantity of the income earned in the u.s. is completely untaxed, and are not talking about a 47%. i'm talking about income across the spectrum that is untaxed. that would be in come out we deduct from our taxes when we take itemized deductions, or the income that is excluded from our taxes that we are in. for example, relatively -- relative to income, higher and higher unemployment costs. health insurance that is provided by the employer is excluded from income tax. if we want to look for more revenue, we would start their of the things that are not taxed at all and try to bring more revenue that way first. host: why do we have tax rates? where do they come from? what is the history? gues